Twenty-three senior nursing students of the University of Guam School of Health completed the Applied Suicide Intervention Service Training (ASIST) from August 28-29 provided by the Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center ASIST instructors.  

The ASIST workshop offers lessons to intervene and help prevent the immediate risks of suicide. The students were very appreciative of the tools they learned prior to going to their first psychiatric-mental health clinical practicum. 

"The ASIST Training  targeted the emotional, intellectual, and physical aspects of a person," said Christine Cristobal, ssenior nursing major and president of the Student Nurses Association of Guam (SNAG). "There were activities that allowed students to become self-aware of their own attitudes toward the subject of suicide. The workshop provided students the tools to  recognize signs of those at risk of suicide, to  develop a safety plan based on the client’s needs and to demonstrate skills in a supervised simulation”.

The clinical practicum provides nursing students the opportunity to learn and practice nursing skills in real life setting with real patients. The greatest challenge for students is while they are in this learning process, they must deliver safe, quality and appropriate care.  This demand to meet the minimum standard of care is true to all health care facilities. However, the need to be more sensitive, caring and confident is magnified when one is taking care of clients with psychiatric and mental health problems. This specific clientele have special needs and are more vulnerable compared to the adult clients in general health care settings.

One of the reasons for admission to a psychiatric health facility is failed suicide attempt or having suicidal thoughts and ideations. Handling clients with this kind of problem needs a specific set of skills and thorough understanding of the underlying factors leading to the suicide attempt. 

There is no better way for students to have meaningful clinical practicum than to prepare them. Students that are well-prepared are less anxious and more confident. This leads to a more satisfying learning experience for students and the provision of safe nursing care to clients.  

The nursing program of the University of Guam will continuously provide training opportunities for its students to better equip them to be competent nurses.